Kashmir Digits

India will come face-to-face with Taliban after accepting Russia’s invitation for talks in Moscow next week.

The Taliban, who captured power two months ago, have also been invited to the talk by Russia.

Confirming the Indian participation, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said Thursday: “We have received an invitation for the Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan on October 20. We will be participating in it.”

It is likely that the MEA will send a Joint Secretary-level officer to the meeting – a final decision is yet to be made.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special representative on Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said Moscow had invited representatives of the Taliban to international talks on Afghanistan on October 20.

The talks follow a G20 summit on Afghanistan — it was held on October 12 — to help the country avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the wake of the power shift there.

This will be the second time India will will meet Taliban for talks at any level.

India’s ambassador to Qatar, Deepak Mittal, had met Taliban representatives in Doha towards the end of August.

However, this will be India’s first meeting after the Taliban announced its Cabinet.

Russia is concerned about the impact in the wider region. Moscow has moved to engage the Taliban, but has stopped short of granting recognition to the group which is banned as a “terrorist” organisation in Russia.

The Taliban too are looking for international recognition while the countries are buying time before recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan.